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On the
morning of Sunday, May 5, my husband and I were in Saugatuck, MI, having
breakfast outside a charming little restaurant.We were enjoying the last day of a splendid weekend spent with my
favorite photography group, when a woman from the Allegan County Animal Shelter
walked by with the most adorable little white dog. The woman said it was a female Havanese mix,
estimated to be about 10 – 12 months old.And she was up for adoption.I absolutely was not looking for a dog.But, for me,
it was love at first sight.

My husband
didn’t feel the same way.But before we
finished the three-hour drive home, he was on board.In fact, he chose her name as he drove –
“Hannah.”Little did we know that he
would soon put “Horrible” in front of that name!

On line, I
read that Havanese are difficult to housebreak (an understatement).Well, she had “accidents” in our house on a
daily basis, and we’d been taking her out about every 90 minutes.She seemed to want to just sit on the
sidewalk or lie in the grass and look around.Then she’d come in and poop.I’d
never been so frustrated with a dog.

And the
little darling had separation anxiety like nothing I’d ever seen before.During her second week with us, we left the
house for about five hours.When we came
back, I was horrified to see our kitchen blinds chewed into pieces on three
windows and bite marks on a few of the others.We’d left her in the kitchen with three baby gates keeping her on the
wood floor, but she knocked one of the gates down.So we had also potty accidents in other rooms.Since then, she’s always in her crate while
we’re gone.

She has
other bad habits, as well.She jumps
really, really well.Like from the floor
to the kitchen table with one leap (and, no, she doesn’t have long legs).She ate my sushi when I got up from the table
to hug my son after a visit.And the
other day, she ate some moldy cheese that I put on the island counter, intending
to throw out.Yes, she’s gotten into
lots of stuff in places where she never should’ve been.

Oh, and she
loves to chew.She got my reading glasses
and did such a good job on them that I had to guess what some of the scattered pieces
were from.And while she was on the
nightstand, she ate an entire container of my shea butter.She also chewed the toes off a doll I bought
for our granddaughter.And imagine my
horror when she chewed a disposable razor that she dug out of the trash (yes,
she’s a garbage picker – we now have new waste baskets with lids). I thought what I saw on the floor was a piece
of foil.But, no, it was the actual
blade, all bent up and, somehow, without Hannah's blood on it.

Hannah also runs
away every chance she gets. We can’t let
anybody in the house until she’s been leashed, because she squeezes out the
door like a little rat.The last time I
chased her, I thought I’d have a heart attack.The only reason she stopped running was to sniff another dog’s
poop.That’s when I tackled her and
almost fell into it.She’s just plain
rude in so many ways.She breaks into
rooms by body-slamming the doors.Or she’ll
slam into me, when I don’t let her off her leash to chase a squirrel.The papers from the animal shelter said she
was turned in by a police officer. It
figures - she was probably in jail, because she’s definitely a criminal.

So why is
she still here?Well, she’s the most
loving and loveable dog I’ve ever had.She bonded with me instantly, as if she knows I’m the one who saved
her.She follows me from room to room
and even stays up into the wee hours with me.And we’re making progress with her rude behavior.We found an excellent trainer, Kat Stevens (KatStevensDogTraining.com),
who has us using a clicker (it really works!) to make Hannah pay attention to
commands.This week, we’re working on
door etiquette.No more running out the
door or jumping on visitors. And we’re
making progress with her potty behavior. Hopefully, we can “click” her into a perfect lady,
like her sister, Maddie.(And then we
can call the carpet cleaners in, even though we’re doing an admirable cleaning job
on our own.)

The bottom
line is we love Hannah too much to give up on her.And when I make a commitment, it’s for
good.In the meantime, I’m using humor
to get us through this rough patch.(Hannah
has a Twitter page – it’s: twitter.com/HannahHavanese)She’s a spirited and special pup, and from
the moment I saw her, I felt like she was supposed to be with us.So we’ll just keep clicking her rudeness
away!

If you’re in southeast
Michigan and have ever thought about making beautiful metal jewelry, you’ve got
to check out Fritz & Friends! About
10 years ago, I learned how to make a Byzantine chain bracelet. I needed to buy supplies, and the people at
the jewelry supply place told me about Fritz & Friends. (Back then, it was Fritz Willis.) And I’ve been there ever since!

Fritz and Friends is a stand-alone
jewelry studio in beautiful Franklin, Michigan, where your creativity has no
limits. It offers a fun, friendly and
well-equipped learning environment for the study of both basic and advanced
techniques in metalsmithing and jewelry making.
Lead instructor, Susan Hoge, has multiple qualifications, including a
Masters in Fine Arts from the Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bachelor of Arts
(Studio) from the University of New Mexico, Bachelor of Arts (Creative Arts)
from the University of Michigan and Associates in Applied Science (Jewelry
Studio) from the Fashion Institute of Technology at the State University of New
York.

The
studio offers specialized workshops on the weekends, as well as a 10-week
session of three-hour day and evening classes (cost is $27 per class;
tuition for all 10 weeks is due in full before the session starts).

Fritz & Friends is
unique in this region. Students of all ages and walks of life come to learn and
work at different levels and paces. And
it’s the kind of place where you can’t help but enjoy yourself. I like to say that I stick with it because
it’s cheaper than therapy. That’s
because I can come in exhausted after a bad day, and by the time I leave, I’m
energized and smiling.

Don't miss out! A new session begins this week, September 9. It's not too late to start! Or you can reserve a place for the Winter session, which starts in January. Call Jayne at 248-762-4810, or visit fritzandfriends.org for more information.

It’s been a
year since I’ve done a blog post, a year filled with concern over some crazy
health issues that came out of nowhere.
It all started around last Christmas, when I began having mild migraine
headaches, along with a scary variety of migraine auras (actually called
“ocular migraines” – who knew?). These
headaches, although not severe, were with me literally 24/7. And that frequency lasted until March. I was convinced I had a brain tumor.

By the end
of March, I’d had an MRI that showed there was no brain tumor. But there were other “issues” that needed to
be investigated. So began my yearlong odyssey
of doctor, hospital and lab visits, which I will condense into a few paragraphs. The
first neurologist I saw put me on a treatment regimen that actually increased
the frequency of my headaches.So I switched
to a team of doctors who sent me for tests.Then they told me to see a hematologist, who
ordered more tests, which identified a genetic mutation that has nothing to do
with the headaches. As of today, they’re
pretty much gone, but I still get the auras daily, every time I’m exposed to
bright light. And nobody knows why the
headaches began or why they’ve stopped.It turns out that neurology is still in its infancy, because relatively
little is known about the brain.

Adding to my
health concerns, in October, I experienced the worst upper abdominal pain of my
life. I couldn’t sleep at all that night
and almost went to the ER. Instead, I saw
my doctor first thing in the morning. He
asked if it could be food poisoning and if I’d been to a restaurant. I told him I hadn’t, that I’d made a vegetarian
stir-fry the previous evening, so it couldn’t have been food poisoning. Well, because of the extreme pain and the
abdominal swelling, he sent me to the ER, where I had several tests. They found nothing that would account for the
pain, but said I had a very high white count.
So I got an IV bag of antibiotics.
One of the tests did find a 6mm kidney stone, which was a shock. And, although the stone wasn’t causing any
immediate problems, I saw a urologist about it.
I’ll see him again in a few months to further assess the situation. By the way,
here’s a quick tip – the urologist said to drink Crystal Light lemonade if you
have kidney stones, because the citric acid sometimes helps break them
down.(At least, I think that’s how he
said it.)

So why all
the terrible stomach pain? Well, within
three days, I was back to a normal diet and feeling absolutely no pain. So I decided to have some of that veggie
stir-fry before it started to go bad.
And within three hours of eating that damned thing, I was doubled over
again. Yes, I had poisoned myself twice
on the same crap! Because I added
cauliflower, broccoli and snow peas after the other stuff was cooked, they never
got hot enough to kill any bacteria.
And, although they say washing veggies with water is enough, I’m proof
that’s not always the case. I figure I must
have needed another big doctor/hospital bill.

Anyway, after a year of
anxious doctoring, I’m left wondering whether my gene cesspool will cause health
problems in the future. (Fortunately, it hasn’t made any trouble yet, and the
doctors and I are hoping it never will.) And
I wish I knew what will happen with the kidney stone. Will it suddenly start moving on Christmas
Day, when I have 30+ people here?

Probably the
first thing I ought to do is stop thinking about all of it and force myself to
resume eating fresh vegetables without first soaking them in bleach. But, for now, I think I’ll go mix up a batch
of Crystal Light.